Blake Island was used as a camping ground by the Suquamish tribe. In about 1786, according to legend it was the birthplace of Chief Sealth, for whom the city ofSeattle was named. The island was first noted by British explorer George Vancouver in 1792, as part of his exploration of Puget Sound, though it was not named. In 1841, Lt. Charles Wilkes of the United States Exploring Expedition named it Blake Island for George Smith Blake, the officer in charge of the United States Coast Survey between 1837 and 1848. Locally, it was known as Smuggler's Island. In the mid 19th century, the island was logged for its timber. During the Prohibition, it was frequently used as a refuge for bootleggers smuggling alcohol from Canada. William Pitt Trimble, a Seattle millionaire, purchased Blake island, and renamed it Trimble Island. By 1917 he and his family lived there in a magnificent estate. The Trimble family invited Camp Fire Girls from Seattle, and throughout Washington state to hold their first summer resident camp on Trimble Island in 1920. The girls named their camp Camp Sealth in honor of the birthplace of Chief Sealth. They paid for a delivery of logs, but soon found them floating away at high tide. They scrambled to haul them back, and soon found themselves dealing with a fire on the island. Because the Trimble family had other plans for the island, Camp Fire Girls of Seattle searched for a new, and permanent location for Camp Sealth and by the next summer had moved it to Vashon Island, where it remains today. The Trimble family's occupation of the island came to an end in 1929 when William Trimble's wife Cassandra died in an accident in Seattle, after which the family abandoned the island and left the house to decay. Trimble sold Blake Island to an investment company in 1936 and retired in Seattle. During World War II, a unit of the Coastal Artillery of the US Army was garrisoned in the Trimble mansion. The again-abandoned mansion burned around 1948, when a fire built by two young men trying to get warm went out of control, leaving only the foundations visible today. In 1959, the state of Washington made the entire island a state park. In 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton invited member economies' leaders to Blake Island for the first APEC Leaders' Meeting.
Activities and amenities
The park is only reachable by tour boat or private watercraft. Park boundaries extend one-quarter of a mile beyond the island's shoreline, providing moorage buoys and diving area. The park's includes five miles of shoreline with views of the Olympic Mountains and the Seattle skyline. The park offers hiking and biking trails, fishing, shellfish harvesting, sports fields, and marina. The island is home to a variety of wildlife, including deer that sometimes swim from the mainland to the island from Manchester.
More reading
Kitsap County Historical Society, Kitsap County: A History, 2nd edition, 1981.
